1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a printing apparatus control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, along with the growth of the production printing market, large quantities of print product are often times generated using a printing apparatus such as a digital copying machine and a digital multifunction peripheral. On the other hand, a feed tray in a printing apparatus often feeds at most about 1,000 to 2,000 sheets of cut paper per feed tray. Consequently, to efficiently generate a large quantity of print product, it is necessary for the operator to appropriately replenish a plurality of feed trays with the sheets required for printing so that printing does not stop.
Generally, such a feeding operation is performed by the operator comprehensively determining the number of sheets required for a print job, the print job schedule, and the remaining amount of sheets in the feed trays, for example, and then the feed trays and the replenishment timing are determined. Consequently, due to human error or lack of skill of the operator, printing can be unintentionally stopped. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2007-168383 and 2003-330644 discuss methods for supporting the operator in such a replenishment operation. However, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2007-168383 and 2003-330644, the operator is notified of the sheet and feed tray to be replenished just before a print job starts or during an interruption of the print job. Therefore, the methods cannot notify the operator by automatically determining the trays to be replenished with sheets so that the print job is not stopped.